Contents

Boundary Waters Canoe Area is a vast wilderness area in northern Minnesota, adjoining with Ontario's Quetico Provincial Park, famous for its array of over a thousand small- to medium-sized lakes and the wildlife they provide a home for.

Understand

History

Landscape

The BWCA is a vast wilderness in Northern Minnesota composed of over 1 million acres of untouched boreal forests strewn with dramatic cliffs, rock outcroppings, and unforgettable vistas. While the climate may be the harshest found within the US outside of Alaska the experience will be one that is simply impossible to have anywhere else on earth. Thousands upon thousands of miles of water routes weaving in and out of one of the most lake populated places on earth are open for the taking. No motored vehicles or boats are allowed within the peramitters of the wilderness area. The area features the largest boreal forest east of the Rocky Mountains.

Flora and fauna

Simply put the BWCA is a massive boreal/ coniferous forest in north central Minnesota. Numerous wild flowers, mushrooms, and othe fungi dot the forest floor. Roughly 85 percent of the BWCA is coniferous forest composed of white and red pine, spruce, jack pine, cedar, and hemlock. The other 15 percent of the area is decidious trees such as paper birch, yellow birch, poplar, upland maple, and tammarack(tammarack is debateable because many do consider it a conifer when in actuallity it is a decidious tree)

Climate

The climate in the BWCA(Boundary Water Canoe Area)is characterized as being very unpredictable. One constant is the perilously long frigid winters. An important note to the stability of this wildernesses survival is the constant thickness of its lake ice throughout the winters. Four to seven feet of lake ice is common from winter to winter with the number of subzero days (that is days within a 365 yday year the temperature dips below 0 degress Fahrenheit)averaging around 90. Snow can fall at any month of the year and is actually highest around the months of March and April. Minnesota's state record low of -60 degrees Fahrenheit which was officially reported in Tower, MN just south of the BWCA. However many feel that temperatures could be as much as 10 degrees colder within some of the top ridges of the Laurention Highlands which seemingly bisect the BWCA. Without any records taken from within the BwCA this has yet to be proven. Average winter snowfall in the area can be as high as 150 inches atop the ridges of the Superior highlands off the shore of Lake Superior with about 75-90 inches of snowfall being the norm throughout the rest of the BWCA. Summers are short and generally cool with offshore breezes from Lake Superior dramatically colling areas near the shore. Temperatures can be as much as 25 degress cooler near the coast opposed to inland areas. Summer temperatures rarely exceed 90 degrees and are very short lived if temperatures do. Summer weather lasts from mid June to mid August. Generally the first signifigant snowfall(2 inches or more)occurs in early October. Lakes tend to freeze to a walkable thicknes(4 inches) by late October. The average temperature for the year within the area ranges from 29-36 degrees. One reason for this cold climate is the fact the it is centered in the North American continent. The closest ocean inlet is actually the Hudson Bay which is frozen for 70 percent of the time. Also due to the thin acidic soil and climate agriculture would not only be unpractical but nearly impossible. Forests cover over 99% of dry land and the rest of the region is composed of 40% water.

Get in

Ely is the western entry point to the BWCA while Grand Marais on the North Shore of Minnesota is the eastern point of entry

Fees/Permits

Camping Permits/Fees [both U.S. and Canadian Trips]: Camping permits, which control your entry date and location must be reserved for your party. The Forest Service fee for each permit issued is $25.00. You will also be required to pay a USFS User Fee of $10.00 per adult and $5.00 per youth per trip.

Get around

With few roads in the area, the only practical form of transportation is by boat or floatplane. With portages frequently necessary to get from one lake to another, canoes and kayaks are the only watercraft capable of reaching many of the lakes; regulations prohibiting motorboats on most lakes limit their range even further.

See

Do

Buy

Eat

Drink

Sleep

Lodging

Camping

Backcountry

Stay safe

Get out

At the east end of the Boundary Waters lies Lake Superior, which contains Isle Royale, another secluded wilderness area with paddling and hiking opportunities, accessible by ferry from Grand Portage.